Thursday, June 27, 2013

Let's Talk About Rings the Korean Way

I rarely wear jewelry and somehow I am not really that interested in them but this thing about the ring fascinates me.

I never heard about a so called couple ring until I meet my Korean students.

I thought couple ring is the wedding ring but it turned out to be completely different thing.

Here's the story: If a man and a woman became exclusively dating at least for a month, the man is expected and therefor oblige to buy a couple ring. YES! one for her and one for him and they tend to be pricey. (the evil in me is thinking, if only I am pretty then I would go on a BF collection to collect a ring I could sell, after all I only need a month to get that ring.. Kidding)

actually I wonder what happen to that couple ring after they became engage. They sure will change it to an engagement ring of course. Well I head that the girl will put the couple ring in another finger and will put the engagement ring to replace it. But the catch is that there is no specific finger the couple can put the couple ring, it's their own choice. Well it still can be seen as fashion and not something that symbolize something.

oh well here comes the ring that I know of. Wedding ring, symbol of being taken and not up for grabs. according to my students the couple will now replace the rings that they previously wore with this final ring.

I was thinking! wow you cant be a playboy in Korea unless you are rich (not that I agree with guys being playboys) Just imagine buying pricey ring every month just in case you want to change GF every month. Sigh!

Some koreans words I would like to share:

Older sister

*If you are a boy - Nuna

*If you are a girl - Unni

Older Brother

*If you are a boy - hyung

*If you are a girl - Oppah (but then again if your BF is older than you, you can call him Oppah)

Younger sis/bro

*Male/female can call them dongseng.

and here's my favorite

Hello

*face to face - anyong (if its older - anyong haseyo)

*Over the phone - Yoboseyo (seyo is polite way, mostly used to older people) But be careful cause without the seyo and just yobo it would mean a totally different thing, it would mean "Honey" and not just honey, it's only used by couples who are legally married. If you are not married then you can use "jagi or jagiya" which is so sad cause jagiya is the name of my dog. :( T.T

28 comments:

What will they think of next. The kids here call them friendship rings or something like that. I don't wear jewelry very often either. I am married but don't wear a wedding ring. I just find no use for one.

It's interesting to read about other customs. My sister-in-law is Korean. She taught us some naughty words of course! Thanks for sharing those words. It's funny I thought unni was for sister. Like she would refer to her older Korean women friends as "unni" or so I thought!

Wow that is crazy that only after 1 month they are expected to buy a ring! The price of gold is outrageous right now I just can't imagine doing this. It is so interesting how cultures vary beliefs when it comes to relationships.

Wow! Love reading about other cultures.... thank you so much for sharing this story. Very interesting but also I would think it would force the "couple" to be more serious about really getting to know some basics about each other during that first month so they can decide if they really want to get "that serious" or not!

I am not always grammatically and politically correct. I type while I think and I don't edit... I cant promise you polite ways of saying things because unfortunately there is no line between my brain and my mouth.

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Friend, teacher, therapist and expected to have a heart of gold. I was born and raised in the country side with parent who are both teachers. I never dream to be one so I took up Political Science but then to make the story short I ended up being a teacher as well.